The Calamity Form: On Poetry and Social Life by Anahid Nersessian

 

 Every so often it's good to give the brain a workout with some cutting-edge literary criticism. The Calamity of Form was, for me, good in that way.

The argument, to the extent that I succeeded in following it, is that romantic poetry responded to the changing social conditions brought about by the industrial revolution by, in essence, not responding to it. That is, they used a variety of rhetorical moves—catachresis, obscurity, apostrophe—that rather than clarifying their response to the changes the industrial revolution brought about, obscured those changes. The poets achieved what Nersessian calls nescience, because the tools of the poet offered no plausible way to respond to the situation in which they lived.

In the course of making her argument, which she does in clear lively prose, the author appeals not only to canonical romantic poets, but also to painters such as John Constable (his cloud paintings) and contemporary artists and musicians such as Kate Bush (clouds again), and Robert Barry (not clouds, but gasses).

Maybe after I rest up a bit I'll tackle Nersessian's book on Keats's Odes.